It All Began With A Dare
by x-cheeselouise-x
Summary: When Carlisle takes on a dare to venture into the haunted old barn in town, he takes his neighbor Esme with him. When Esme goes missing and a mysterious vampire shows up and threatens Carlisle, how will he find the guts to get Esme back? ALL HUMAN...for now!


It All Began With A Dare

**Hey everyone! This is a fanfic I came up with about all human Carlisle and his neighbor Esme, and they come into contact with some vicious vampires in their hometown, thanks to a game of truth or dare. If you read it, let me know what you think!**

**All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer, amazing author of the Twilight Series, and my personal hero. :)**

On the outskirts of town was an old barn, almost completely obscured by ivy. There were no houses around the barn, no human habitation anywhere nearby. Perhaps it was because of this that the legend was centered there.

The story started with a cheerleader. She was young, pretty, and head-over-heels in love, they said. However her father didn't approve of the boy she loved, and so during their senior year of high school, they decided to run off together.

He told her to meet him at the old barn, according to the story. He waited for her the next night, and for three nights afterward, but she never came.

That was when the stories began, because no one ever saw them alive again. His body was found a week later, almost unrecognizable beneath the gashes covering his body. The strangest part—the part that baffled the authorities and captured the imaginations of the children—was that there was no blood. There was no blood on the body and none in the body. Thus, the legend—the legend of the thing that haunted the barn—was born.

Carlisle stood outside the old, weathered building and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. Why in the world did I take that bet? He groaned inwardly.

It was a week before Halloween, so his friends—thinking that they would be funny—had dared him to go into the barn and stay for ten minutes. No one had gone near the place for years because of the half-formed fears that lurked in the back of their minds. However, against his better judgment, he had agreed—he wouldn't be seen as "chicken."

Yet here he was, standing there with his young girl neighbor as his moral support. Oh yeah, I'm not chicken, he thought sarcastically.

Looking down at Esme, he felt awful. He had been so scared, he had to bring his neighbor, a girl no less... What if she got hurt? He had been an idiot. She looked up at him so trustingly, no fear behind those wide blue eyes of hers. Carlisle felt ashamed of himself.

"Okay Esme... you ready to go inside?" he asked gently. She smiled at him and nodded.

Carlisle put his hand on the knob and slowly pushed the door open. Taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip on Esme's hand and walked inside.

At first, he couldn't see a thing. As his eyes adjusted, he began to see various rusty bits of metal that could have been anything, and cobwebs. Lots and lots of cobwebs. He thought he heard a swish, but he dismissed it as his imagination.

He had let go of Esme once they had walked in. Hearing the swish again, Carlisle reached out for her hand—and found nothing.

He whirled around. "Esme!" he yelled frantically, searching in the dark corners. He almost tripped over a long, rusty piece of metal with a jagged edge. The sharp metal ripped through his jeans easily. He sucked in his breath as he felt the blood trickling down his leg. He ran through the rooms, yelling Esme's name. As he ran back to the front room, he fell over something. Looking down, he realized that the object he had tripped over was Esme's lanyard bracelet—the one she had been wearing on her wrist when he last saw her. Carlisle clutched it to his chest and slowly stood.

He turned back to face the door, and stiffened. There was someone coming towards him.

Then, Carlisle knew he must be dreaming. There was no way that the girl who was slowly making her way to him was real.

She was beautiful, perfect in every way. Her long, black hair fell in waves over her slim shoulders and contrasted sharply with her deathly pale skin. She moved with an ethereal grace—it looked like she was dancing. He realized that he knew who she was—the cheerleader who was said to haunt the old barn. The old stories had described her perfectly.

And then his heart stopped, because his eyes had returned to her face. Her gorgeous face, with the perfectly formed features…and her eyes. Her blood-red eyes that were looking him over appraisingly. She smiled then, almost as if she could hear his heart speeding up, trying to burst out of his chest. Her teeth glistened, and the dream became a nightmare.

"Where is Esme?" He managed to whisper hoarsely.

The gorgeous girl smiled again and said, "I don't think you need to worry about _her_ anymore."

Suddenly, she was standing right next to him, her teeth shining menacingly inches from his face…and Carlisle felt his world fade to blackness.

_**To be continued...**_


End file.
